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Israeli

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned a European Union response on Monday

to Iran's breaches of nuclear limitations, saying it recalled failed diplomacy

with Nazi Germany ahead of World War Two.

"(It) reminds me of the European appeasement of the

1930s," Netanyahu said in a video statement after EU foreign policy chief

Federica Mogherini said none of the parties to a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran

saw its increased uranium enrichment as "significant non-compliance."
"Then,

too, there were those who stuck their head in the sand and did not see the

approaching danger," said Netanyahu, who has often cast Iran's nuclear

projects as a mortal menace to Israel and the wider world. Iran denies seeking

a nuclear bomb.

"It seems there are those in Europe who will not wake up

until Iranian nuclear missiles land on European soil. But then it will be too

late, of course," Netanyahu said.

Israel's main ally the United States quit the Iran nuclear

deal last year, deeming it insufficient. That left Russia, China, France,

Britain and Germany as parties to the deal.

Israel has predicted that, should European powers join

Washington in reimposing sanctions on Tehran, that could prompt the Iranians to

enter talks on a more limiting nuclear accord.

Alluding to Israel's long-standing if veiled threat of a

last-resort war against its arch-foe, Netanyahu said: "In any event, we

will continue to do whatever is necessary to prevent Iran getting nuclear

weaponry."
Earlier on

Monday, the European Union's foreign policy chief said that the remaining

parties to the Iran nuclear deal do not see Tehran's breaches as significant

non-compliance and have not indicated any intent to trigger the accord's

dispute mechanism.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog has confirmed that Iran earlier

this month violated the accord by enriching uranium to 4.5% fissile purity,

above the 3.67% limit set by the 2015 deal, and exceeding limits on its stock

of low-enriched uranium.

"For the time being, none of the parties to the

agreement has signaled their intention to invoke this article," Federica

Mogherini told a news conference in Brussels. "(It) means that none of

them for the moment, for the time being with the current data we have had in

particular from the IAEA, that the non-compliance is considered to be

significant non-compliance."

Under the terms of the deal, if any party believes another is

not upholding their commitments they can refer the issue to a Joint Commission,

whose members are Iran, Russia, China, the three European powers, and the

European Union.

This begins a process that can eventually end with the

restoration of global, United Nations sanctions on Iran. Mogherini said a joint

commission meeting was possible, although when and at what level had yet to be

decided.

Speaking after an EU foreign ministers meeting that was

largely focused on Iran, Mogherini played down those prospects, suggesting that

for now the bloc would focus on diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis.

"The deal is not in good health, but it's still

alive," Mogherini said. "We hope and we invite Iran to reverse these

steps and go back to full compliance with the agreement," she said,

pointing out that they were all reversible.

There were no formal conclusions on what action should next

be taken. But by appearing to suggest that Iran's non-compliance was not

significant, it could anger the United States, which last week warned it would

add further sanctions on Iran over its breaches.

The crisis mushroomed after U.S. President Donald Trump

decided last year to abandon the deal, saying it was flawed to Iran's

advantage, and reimposed a panoply of U.S. sanctions to force Iran to agree

stricter limits on its nuclear program and measures to curb its ballistic

missile and regional activities.

Iran curtailed its program to enrich uranium - widely seen as

a disguised bid to develop nuclear weapons capacity, which Tehran denies, in

return for relief from economic sanctions crippling its economy.

Mogherini also said the shareholders of a barter-based trade

conduit with Iran that now includes 10 EU members were considering whether to

include oil, something that until now has been ruled out given the threat of

U.S. sanctions.

"Even if I think this is the most dramatic and difficult

time, I also think that today everybody realizes that not having the JCPOA

(Iran nuclear deal) in place anymore would be a terrible option for

everybody," Mogherini said.